1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to anti-theft means, and more particularly to an improved system to prevent theft of shopping carts and the like.
Grocery stores, shopping malls and plazas, garden and hardware centers conventionally employ numerous shopping carts to facilitate handling and transportation of goods by customers to and from check-out points and to parked vehicles. Such carts are usually very durably made of relatively expensive materials, such as stainless steel, chrome steel and the like and each may cost up to $30.00 or $40.00 or more. Because of the large number of such carts which may be employed in a single given area, for example, a supermarket grocery store, and the large volume of business which may be conducted during business hours in that area, it is usually relatively simple to remove a cart undetected. In fact, many such carts are stolen each year, such a large number that in some instances the cart thefts represent a very significant factor in the overhead of the business. There exists a need for a simple, inexpensive, effective, preferably automatic system to reduce shopping cart thefts. Such system should be capable of working day or night and be adaptable to a variety of situations. It would also be desirable if such system were effective for industrial use, where cart thefts also occur.